Female stress urinary incontinence (FSUI) is prevalent in women with type 2 diabetes/obesity (T2D/O), and treatment is not optimal. Autograph stem cell therapy surprisingly has poor efficacy. In the male rat model of T2D/O, it was demonstrated that epigenetic changes, triggered by long-term exposure to the dyslipidemic milieu, led to abnormal global transcriptional signatures (GTS) of genes and microRNAs (miR), and impaired the repair capacity of muscle-derived stem cells (MDSC). This was mimicked in vitro by treatment of MDSC with dyslipidemic serum or lipid factors. The current study aimed to predict whether these changes also occur in stem cells from female 12 weeks old T2D/O rats, a model of FSUI. MDSCs from T2D/O (ZF4-SC) and normal female rats (ZL4-SC) were treated in vitro with either dyslipidemic serum (ZFS) from late T2D/O 24 weeks old female Zucker fatty (ZF) rats, or normal serum (ZLS) from 24 weeks old female Zucker lean (ZL) rats, for 4 days and subjected to assays for fat deposition, apoptosis, scratch closing, myostatin, interleukin-6, and miR-GTS. The dyslipidemic ZFS affected both female stem cells more severely than in the male MDSC, with some gender-specific differences in miR-GTS. The changes in miR-GTS and myostatin/interleukin-6 balance may predict in vivo noxious effects of the T2D/O milieu that might impair autograft stem cell (SC) therapy for FSUI, but this requires future studies.

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Afro-Caribbean men have a higher risk of prostate cancer than any other population of men in the world. However, the Caribbean is composed of a heterogenous group of healthcare systems located on small islands which makes population-based studies difficult to conduct and interpret. The aim of this review is to compile previously published data on the state of prostate cancer in Caribbean men and to highlight potential healthcare needs that can be addressed by public health efforts. We reviewed three databases and identified relevant papers that were subsequently searched by the authors. Peer-reviewed studies published in the English language after 2010 with a focus on prostate cancer diagnosis, management, and outcomes of Caribbean men were prioritized. Afro-Caribbean men were found to have a higher incidence and mortality rate compared to their counterparts. Misperception about the disease, lack of regional guidelines, and poor access to care are compounding factors that result in worse outcomes for these men compared to high-income nations. Urologists and oncologists in the region, while well-trained, are limited in number and in most cases do not offer newer treatment modalities. Overall, only a few island nations have cancer registries, and there remains a significant need for more population-based studies to assess guideline adherence and outcomes. Until further research and investment in the region is made, the disparity between the care received by Afro-Caribbean men and their counterparts will likely remain.

Human stem cell therapy for type 2 diabetes/obesity (T2D/O) complications is performed with stem cell autografts, exposed to the noxious T2D/O milieu, often with suboptimal results. We showed in the Obese Zucker (OZ) rat model of T2D/O that when their muscle-derived stem cells (MDSC) were from long-term T2D/O male rats, their repair efficacy for erectile dysfunction was impaired and were imprinted with abnormal gene- and miR-global transcriptional signatures (GTS). The damage was reproduced in vitro by short-term exposure of normal MDSC to dyslipidemic serum, causing altered miR-GTS, fat infiltration, apoptosis, impaired scratch healing, and myostatin overexpression. Similar in vitro alterations occurred with their normal counterparts (ZF4-SC) from the T2D/O rat model for female stress urinary incontinence, and with ZL4-SC from non-T2D/O lean female rats. In the current work we studied the in vitro effects of cholesterol and Na palmitate as lipid factors on ZF4-SC and ZL4-SC. A damage partially resembling the one caused by the female dyslipidemic serum was found, but differing between both lipid factors, so that each one appears to contribute specifically to the stem cell damaging effects of dyslipidemic serum in vitro and T2D/O in vivo, irrespective of gender. These results also confirm the miR-GTS biomarker value for MDSC damage.